LOREX: Participant Biographies
Principal Investigators

Adina Paytan - Research Professor, Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
Adina Paytan is a research professor at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her principal research interests lie in the fields of biogeochemistry, chemical oceanography, and paleoceanography. The goal of her research is to use the chemical and isotopic records enclosed in diverse earth materials to study present and past biogeochemical processes. This research spans a wide range of temporal (seasons to millions of years) and spatial (molecular to global) scales. An overarching goal of this research is to understand the processes and feedbacks operating in the Earth System and how they relate to global changes in climate and tectonics. In addition, Adina is interested in natural and anthropogenically induced perturbations that affect biogeochemical processes and their impact on humans and the environment. Adina considers education and outreach as integral components of her scientific activity and dedicates time to providing professional development and mentoring opportunities to students of all ages and early-career scientists. Adina is an ASLO Fellow and served as an associate editor for Limnology and Oceanography Methods. You can contact her at [email protected]

Michael Pace - ASLO President
Michael Pace's research focuses on aquatic ecosystems with an emphasis on food web interactions and biogeochemistry. He works in a variety of environments including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and coastal lagoons. He is currently conducting research on resilience of aquatic ecosystems, effects of invasive species, synchrony of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and harmful algal blooms. His work considers questions about the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems and the causes and consequences of environmental change.
Michael received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. He did his graduate work at the University of Georgia receiving an M.S. in Zoology and Ph.D. in Ecology. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University and an Assistant Professor of Oceanography at the University of Hawaii. Prior to joining the University of Virginia in 2008, he was a Senior Scientist and Assistant Director at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. He is currently a Commonwealth Professor at the University of Virginia. He was recognized by ASLO with the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Medal in 2009 and by the International Society of Limnology with the Naumann-Thienemann Medal in 2016. He served as ASLO President from 2018-2020.

Linda Duguay - ASLO Past-President
Linda Duguay received her BA in Biology from the University of Rhode Island (URI) and her MS and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami (UM), Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. She is the Director of the University of Southern California (USC) Sea Grant Program and Director of Research for the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at USC. She served as President of ASLO from 2016-2018).
Linda's research interests are in plankton ecology of ctenophores, algal invertebrate symbioses, benthic ecology with a focus on disturbance in dredge material sites and problems of the urban ocean such as water quality and changing climate effects on ecosystems.

Brittany Schieler, ASLO Director of Communications and Programs
LOREX and Science Communication Fellow

Rachel Weisend - Spring and Summer 2023
Rachel Weisend is a marine geomicrobiologist currently finishing her PhD at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. Her research focuses on how microbial communities drive methane production and consumption. During her Ph.D., Rachel has pursued international collaborations from being in the inaugural Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange (LOREX) cohort in New South Wales, Australia, and most recently sailing on expedition NBP-2301 to the Ross Sea, Antarctica.
As the ASLO Sci Comm intern, Rachel plans to expand her love for international collaborative research by working with the third LOREX Cohort and Global Outreach Initiative. Rachel is looking forward to gaining experience in project management, science communication, and publishing during her internship.
You can contact her at [email protected]
Former LOREX Fellows
Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
Fall 2019-Spring 2020
Spring 2019
Fall 2019
Jessica Bellworthy
Eilea Knotts
Brittany Schieler
Maha Cziesielski
LOREX Participants
Dalhousie University
Jordan Snyder
University of California, Santa Barbara
Jordan is a 2nd year PhD student at University of California, Santa Barbara where she uses low-altitude remote sensing techniques to measure flow dynamics in the coastal ocean. After completing a MSc in Optical Oceanography at the University of Maine, Orono, she worked as a technician at UCSB and discovered the capabilities of remote sensing via aerial drones. Using thermal infrared cameras, she is making centimeter-scale observations of mixing and turbulence in coastal environments, namely around kelp forests and small creek outflows. This summer Jordan will join Dr. Ruth Musgrave and her group at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and contribute to their ocean alkalinity project in the Bedford Basin. Here she will quantify mixing times and surface flow fields as part of a tracer release experiment. This work will supplement her studies in California where she is testing a Particle Image Velocimetry method in combination with drone imagery to observe fine-scale mixing in the coastal ocean. She hopes to apply this technique to other physical phenomenon on the inner shelf, such as terminating internal waves in the Santa Barbara Channel and mixing at frontal zones.
Marina Fennell
University of California, Irvine
Marina Fennell is a Ph.D. candidate working with Professor Francois Primeau in the Earth System Science department at the University of California, Irvine. Her thesis involves the development and application of a new Bayesian solver for overdetermined datasets of seawater carbon dioxide-system chemistry. Existing solvers like CO2SYS solve the exactly determined system, where only two parameters are measured. Consequently, the uncertainty results are calculated by propagation of errors. Her new Bayesian solver, QUODcarb, can handle the exactly determined or overdetermined cases. It formulates a Bayesian problem and finds the most probable CO2-system state given the measurements and their precisions. QUODcarb then summarizes the posterior probability distribution by approximating it using a Gaussian distribution, from which it draws uncertainty estimates. She intends to use QUODcarb to investigate the use of internal consistency of marine carbonate chemistry to help identify sources of measurement bias.
A good understanding of the internal consistency of marine carbon dioxide system measurements is important for tracking the ocean’s uptake and inventory or anthropogenic carbon, among numerous other fields. To continue to improve understanding of the internal consistency of independent measurements of the carbonate system, studies assess the quality of their data with overdetermined measurements. During her LOREX exchange, Marina will be working with Professor Douglas Wallace and his students and colleagues at Dalhousie University in Canada. Professor Wallace and his team have collected an overdetermined dataset that can be used in conjunction with QUODcarb to uncover new answers to internal consistency and measurement challenges currently being discussed in the ocean carbon monitoring community. A pilot application of her new solver, Marina hopes the seagoing oceanographers at Dalhousie University will provide excellent input for usability of the new solver.
Haifa University, Israel
Jeanne Bloomberg
Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography
Jeanne is a first-year PhD student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography. She studies the effects of coral disease and the environment on the microbial communities of tropical coral reefs. Specifically, she is interested in quantifying corals’ ability to shift their microbiomes in response to a changing habitat. Previously, Jeanne completed her M.S. in oceanography and coastal sciences from Louisiana State University. There she studied coral reproduction over depth, focusing on mesophotic reefs and their potential as refugia. During her LOREX exchange, Jeanne plans to dovetail her research interests with her work with Dr. Tali Mass at the University of Haifa. She will characterize the microbial communities of shallow and mesophotic reefs in the Red Sea, and then assess if transferring microbes from mesophotic to shallow corals in aquaria experiments can enhance coral resilience. As microbial research is under-utilized for coral restoration, Jeanne’s research can shed light on how to apply microbial information to increase the success of restoration efforts. Jeanne completed her B.S. in marine biology at from Northeastern University, where she participated in the Three Seas Program, and she was a fellow in the National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program Science Policy Fellowship.
Antrelle Clark
Auburn University
Antrelle is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Moss lab at Auburn University. She is a proud (Dallas) Texas native, who in her free time enjoys scuba diving, hiking, holiday decorating, taking pictures of the moon with her telescope, and spending time with her husky pup, Glacier. Before pursuing her Ph.D. in Marine Biology, she earned her Associate’s in Biology from Western Texas College and her Bachelor’s in Aquatic Ecology from Tarleton State University. As an undergrad, she studied diatoms found on the carapace and neck of the seven sea turtle species found in the Gulf of Mexico. The goals of this project were (1) to identify the diatom species found on the sampled sea turtles, (2) determine whether the diatom species preferred a certain surface on the sea turtle, and (3) to use the diatoms as an indicator for migratory patterns and health. Studying their symbiosis is what drove Antrelle’s current research interest; however, using a different model. Her dissertation focuses on understanding the cellular/molecular mechanism(s) responsible for Gymnamoebae’s successful association with the comb plates of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and how climatic factors can influence the state of their relationship. This research topic is important to her because while there have been numerous studies on different symbiotic relationships (i.e., corals-zooxanthellae, squid-Vibrio), no studies have focused on the ctenophore-amoeba model. Through the ASLO LOREX, Antrelle will be working with Dr. Dror Angel at the University of Haifa to identify whether amoebae found on ctenophores in the Mediterranean Sea are of the same/different species as the amoebae found on the ctenophores she collects from the Gulf of Mexico. Completing this research in the Mediterranean Sea is important to Antrelle because studies have shown that the ctenophore populations found in the Mediterranean Sea originate from the Gulf of Mexico. The focus of this research centers around climate change, with the objective of seeing whether varying locations and conditions determine if amoebae (and if so, what species) can form these associations with the ctenophore. Through this program, she hopes to enhance her dissertation using the data collected, establish new connections through collaborative research, and expand her current knowledge on the model organisms she is using to study Earth’s changing climate.
Southern Cross University Lismore
Abby Webster
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Abby is a third-year PhD student in Dr. Roxanne Razavi’s Environmental Toxicology Lab at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). Abby’s research interests can be broadly summarized as the connection and interaction between environmental and human health. Growing up spending lots of time outdoors with her family, Abby followed her natural love for field work while earning her BS in Biotechnology at SUNY ESF and found herself returning to aquatic research with every opportunity. For her PhD work, Abby is studying water quality in relation to harmful algal blooms and the presence of benthic cyanobacteria in lakes of New York State. Benthic cyanobacteria are far understudied compared to their planktonic counterparts, despite their ability to also produce harmful toxins. Due to this, drivers of benthic cyanobacteria proliferation and toxin production, and the role of benthic nutrients in these dynamics, are not well understood. For her LOREX project, Abby is investigating nitrogen uptake by diazotrophic (N2-fixing) benthic cyanobacteria across differing N:P ratios in sediment using a stable isotope tracer method. To do this work, Abby is collaborating with Associate Professor Joanne Oakes and Professor Bradley Eyre at Southern Cross University’s Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry in Lismore, New South Wales. This work will enhance our understanding of nitrogen uptake by diazotrophic benthic cyanobacteria and how it changes with nutrient availability in freshwater systems. Abby looks forward to building collaborations at her host institution and with other LOREX students and exploring her interests (both research-related and non-) on an international scale.
Emmi Kurosawa
University of Massachusetts, Boston
I am a PhD candidate from the Biology Department at University of Massachusetts, Boston. I am a carnivorous plant enthusiast and am working on the diet shift between carnivory and autotrophy in carnivorous plants. I had the honor to participate in the first LOREX cohorts and had the wonderful collaboration with the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry (CCB), Lismore NSW, Australia. We found correlations between the carnivory in the aquatic carnivorous bladderworts and nutrients in their habitat, using stable isotopes. The manuscript from this work is being synthesized, and will be submitted to a high impact journal soon. This will be my second opportunity working with the same team at the CCB. This time I will be measuring the trophic fractionation factor for botanical carnivory to reinforce the stable isotope mixing model we developed during the last collaboration and will address a knowledge gap highlighted by the previous work.
Umeå University
Adrianna Gorsky
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Adrianna Gorsky is a PhD candidate at the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the advisorship of Dr. Hilary Dugan and Dr. Emily Stanley. Her research is focused on urban waterbodies with an emphasis on water quality and greenhouse gas dynamics. In particular, one of her research topics is better understanding lake metabolism across space and seasons. Her LOREX-exchange project will help expand her knowledge of lake metabolism through a very different ecosystem in Abisko, Sweden with the Climate Impacts Research Centre. She will be working with Dr. Jan Karlsson and Dr. Ryan Sponseller, as well as additional collaborators, to explore an existing dataset of high frequency oxygen measurements from 14 lakes in the region to better understand the impacts of meteorology and a warming climate on whole-lake metabolism. She also plans to combine the data analysis with a field campaign to strengthen our understanding of the spatial variation of metabolism within a lake. Adrianna is very grateful for this opportunity and is looking forward to building relationships, developing new research skills, and experiencing a completely new ecosystem through this collaborative exchange.
Václava Hazukova
University of Maine
Václava is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Ecology and Environmental Science working with Dr. Jasmine Saros at the University of Maine. In her dissertation research, she aims to better understand how structure and function of Arctic lakes respond to climate change by integrating interacting sentinel responses such as changing ice cover duration, physical lake structure, phytoplankton dynamics, and lake metabolism. Václava primarily studies lakes in West Greenland and for her LOREX project, she will join Dr. Jan Karlsson and his lab at Umeå University. In Sweden, she plans to build on one of her dissertation chapters in which she quantifies carbon dioxide emissions from lakes in arid landscapes of West Greenland and assess how hydrological connectivity affects the magnitude of atmospheric carbon dioxide fluxes from Arctic lakes by conducting a meta-analysis using new and previously published data.
University of Montreal
Daniel Szydlowski
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Danny is a second-year PhD student in the Freshwater and Marine Sciences program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology. His research focuses on the effects of external disturbance on lake structure and function through factors such as climate and invasive species. Currently, he is researching how storms affect phytoplankton in lakes through tradeoffs between nutrient loading and light limitation. He has found a relationship between the response of phytoplankton to individual storm events and antecedent winter conditions, which may “set the stage” early in the year for what occurs later in the summer. Through the LOREX program, Danny aims to study the effects of winter conditions on organic matter quality, which may ultimately be important in mediating the response of phytoplankton to summer storms. He is very excited to work with Dr. Jean-Francois Lapierre of the University of Montreal on these questions by freezing soils taken from the shorelines of Canadian lakes and investigating what these cold conditions do to organic matter quality, a question that is growing increasingly important in the face of global climate change. Overall, Danny is looking forward to spending time with the limnologists of GRIL and developing new research skills!
Meredith Theus
Cornell University
Meredith is a PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. Broadly, she is interested in aquatic ecosystem ecology, conservation, and restoration with a particular interest in connecting biodiversity to ecosystem functioning. Meredith’s research focuses on how plants mediate carbon cycling in freshwater ecosystems and on linking plant biodiversity to greenhouse gas emissions in shallow aquatic systems and wetlands. Through the LOREX program, Meredith will work with Dr. Jean-Francois Lapierre at Université de Montréal to determine the effects of litter quality diversity on dissolved organic matter quantity and quality and greenhouse gas production. She is excited to meet and collaborate with great scientists, and she is excited to learn new techniques that she can bring back with her and share with others!
Université du Québec à Montréal
Emily Martin
University of California, Irvine
Emily is a first year Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), studying freshwater communities within Dr. Celia Symons’ laboratory. Completing her BS at Purdue University in Indiana, she became particularly interested in freshwater systems while researching amphibian disease in Midwest ponds and lampricide resistance in the Great Lakes. Coming to UCI, she is interested in exploring how anthropogenic stressors shape lake ecosystems and how those freshwater systems will respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions. Her dissertation will investigate alpine lake community dynamics within the Eastern Sierra, delving into community function and assembly along spatial and temporal gradients. Through a combination of laboratory and field approaches in the Symons Lab, she will expand her knowledge of freshwater community ecology while collaborating with interdisciplinary groups.
Emily will be working closely with Dr. Alison Derry and her lab at UQAM, applying eDNA metabarcoding to predict the community impacts of intraspecific variation of stickleback fish on aquatic communities in lakes of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska (USA). She will also evaluate aquatic community composition and relative abundances in experimental lakes where stickleback populations were reintroduced. This project will investigate and help predict potential changes in the stickleback and aquatic communities associated with their restorative introductions, progressing understanding about fish transplantations on aquatic communities and how those communities respond across trophic levels.
Overall, Emily is excited to collaborate internationally, learn new techniques on a fascinating project, and expand her professional network through the ASLO LOREX program.